Toyota will increase directors' pay 19% after record profit

TOKYO (Bloomberg) -- Toyota will raise its directors' pay by 19 percent for the last fiscal year after the company reported a record profit.

Toyota proposed 1.52 billion yen ($14.9 million) in combined compensation and bonuses to directors, including President Akio Toyoda, in a notice to shareholders on Tuesday. The company paid 1.28 billion yen the previous fiscal year.

After recording an unprecedented 1.82 trillion yen profit last fiscal year, Toyota forecast this month that net income will slip 2 percent in the year ending March 31. The company predicts deliveries to increase in every major region except Japan, where the nation’s first sales tax increase in 17 years is expected to damp demand.

Toyota has proposed raising its year-end dividend to 100 yen a share, or 165 yen for the full year. The company also is buying back stock for the first time in five years. In March, it said it would repurchase as many as 60 million shares, equivalent to a 2 percent stake, for 360 billion yen.

The proposed raise in compensation to directors compares with Toyota’s agreement in March to increase base wages in Japan by an average of 2,700 yen more in base pay per month, 1 percent of last year’s average salary and less than the 4,000 yen boost that the Toyota Motor Workers’ Union had asked for.

The carmaker granted the union’s request for workers’ average bonus to rise to 2.44 million yen, the equivalent of 6.8 months of salary.